Sonder
by fifthbeta
Summary: Mihael is a world class violinist, famous for flawless compositions. But Matt sees past the façade, finds something grotesque and angelic crawling underneath his skin. Heavenwards— where every star is beaming; I kneel, hearkening to their song of light. AU, mxm, reposted from my old account, now being continued. originally inspired by Eduard Mörike's An Die Geliebte.


Flipping my goggles over my eyes, I locked the door behind me and set out for the corner store, wallet in hand. I needed cigarettes. And more games. In the past week I'd beaten several notorious criminals, including the Joker, Sofia Lamb, and Bowser, of course- but games never lasted me long.

My destination was in walking distance, so I went past my 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle once I emerged from the front doors of the brick apartment building I was renting in, and continued on down the street.

I didn't get many weird looks towards my goggles since I'd been living in Winchester my whole life, but there was the occasional foreigner that openly gawked- this time it was some woman dressed in a blue suit, holding a mobile loosely in her right hand.

She had an almost angry expression on her face, and I felt her eyes follow me as I looked away and turned the corner to walk down the street she happened to be on. I tried to ignore her as I walked past, but I couldn't help it and stole another glance at her face. Serious. Confused. She was pretty. Pretty bitter looking. Ha-ha..

She coughed and looked away quickly when I peered at her, shuffling to the side a bit, as if turning away from me would erase the fact she had been staring. Okay, whatever.

I finally reached the store and pushed the door open to reveal row upon row of merchandise, and at the counter, cigarettes. Grabbing a shopping bin, I cruised down the aisles, tossing in snack foods, enough energy drinks to last me a week or two... and cereal... Sometimes I've gotta eat something else other than junk. I grabbed more cigarettes than I probably needed at the checkout, but it's better to be prepared, right?

I paid quickly, casually saluting the cashier when he told me to please 'Have a nice day and come back soon'. Now. Games. I probably should have gone there first, since the bags, heavy with cans and ciggy packs, were killing my arms by the time I was a block away from my favorite gaming store.

I decided to take a quick break and veered into a park with benches, digging into one crinkly plastic bag while I sat down on a bench for a cigarette and grabbed a lighter from my boot.

_Sweet._

I ran out of cigarettes_ four whole days_ ago.

I exhaled and hung my head back, relaxing into the bench a little more than was necessary, but I was having a moment, here.

I could almost hear violins. Grinning, I listened a little harder- I _could_ hear violins.

Make that violin. Just one.

Feeling a little high from my first nicotine-laced breath in a while, I hung both the bags on my right arm, holding the cigarette in my left hand and started towards where the music seemed to be coming from. My arms were getting slightly fatigued again, once an amphitheatre that I hadn't even known existed came into my view... guess that goes to show just how much I'd gone outside in my seventeen years here. And how much I worked out. Huh.

The closer I got, the clearer the music became, and within 10 feet of the first row of seats I was already totally entranced in the song. Before I could see who was playing, though, some security guard stopped me when I was nearing the arched entrance and said I wasn't allowed to smoke this close to the people there. Mumbling something about stupid laws under my breath, I stubbed the cigarette out and continued towards the theatre, brushing past him.

I had plenty of cigarettes for later, right now I needed to see who was playing that violin. The cigarette couldn't do much for me now anyways, as the music drifting past me was enough to sate any addiction.

She had her back turned from me.

All I saw, all I _could_ see, was blonde and leather and music and _her_. I almost subconsciously reached out towards the leather-clad girl onstage, but caught my self and transferred one bag to my left hand, to weigh it down- that, and my right arm was about to fall off. For a few minutes I just stood and watched her play, staring at her lithe back and the strip of skin her midriff revealed.

The notes hung precariously on the edge of her bow, diving elegantly when she moved and binding the audience to the sound with every swing of her arm. Each octave balanced delicately on one another, seemingly fragile and easily breakable with a simple mistake.

The chills rippling through the crowd were not a reaction to the autumn breeze, I thought.

She was amazing, and sexy and-

She turned a little to face another part of the crowd.

-and flat.. but still sexy, and talented, and wear-

She turned a little more, to face my part of the crowd

-ing... tight... leather. And she also happened to be a _he_. That was somewhat.. unsettling. More so, that I still found myself checking... _him_ out. I tried to look somewhere else, and only succeeded in a cheating sort-of way, because I was now staring at the only advertisement I'd seen in the theatre, which had the guy's face on it. And his name.

Mihael.

If I remembered correctly, Mihael was similar to the name of an angel. It fit him, too- blonde hair like a halo around her.. er, his face, soft facial features... apart from icy blue eyes that lifelessly stared back at me from the poster, like bullets, and a subtle glower that other people might mistake for a smile, even. Like he was unhappy, but not wanting to show it.

I turned back to look at his actual face only to see the most serene expression I'd ever beheld. Eyes gently closed, a small smile gracing his lips, I got the feeling he was playing violin to himself in an empty room, and glanced briefly beside me to make sure no one had disappeared from the theatre- they hadn't, of course.

My eyes were right back on Mihael and the violin, and I found myself listening as attentively as any other audience member. Or a little more. Losing myself in the music, I didn't catch myself when my eyes started to wander over Mihael and pretty soon I was also lost in thought.

I didn't even realize he had finished the violin piece and that I was just blatantly staring at his ass while applause erupted around me. Until I felt eyes on me, all over me, and snapped back to reality. Blushing profusely, I realized I had dropped one of my bags somewhere along the line- the one which was full of energy drinks, and now had Mihael's full attention, as well as a lot of the audience members.

If his eyes on the poster were hollow-points, in real life they were Aguila Iqs, and they were staring straight at me. My first thought; _Did he see me staring at his ass?,_ and then I grabbed the bag's handle, making a hasty retreat out of the theatre's arched entrance, with half the audience still looking after me. I headed straight home, thoughts of the blonde still running through my head.

I kicked my shoes off, dropping the bags of energy drinks and such and stalked towards my computers, pulling up Google.

_'Mihael violinist'_

I hit search.

Page upon page describing his talent with a violin and his shows filled the browser page and I clicked on the first one, eager to read about him.

It was a wiki page.

Mihael is a world class German violinist, playing shows across the globe. He is known to refuse and evade interviews or questions about him and has yet, even after the peak of his career- in which he played for the Queen of England- to show any insight into his personal life, why he plays, or even his date of birth. Mihael is likely not his real name, and his past remains a mystery.

That was it.

That was all I had to go on.

Frustrated, I grabbed a cigarette and lit up while opening my banking account on the screen and moving some money from my business account over to my actual spending account, then hacking into the server to erase any evidence of the transfer.

I logged into the email account I used for business deals and found two emails waiting for me. I opened the first message. It was from a contact in LA and had information about a possible hacking job for me... if I could find him a more reliable dealer. I filed that away for later, clicking on the next email and promptly almost giving myself a heart attack.

It was from a huge company, one that I'd heard of only because it was all over the place with commercials and articles in the news, either bringing praise or suspicions about the inner workings of the company forwards.

Now I knew that the latter type of article was more truthful.

And this was a very, very untrustworthy company.

Who happened to be hiring me.

It's not like I could refuse- or that I would, anyways, when they were offering me 12 million US dollars.

I didn't even finish reading the email, only scanning the text and grabbing the most essential details before I set to work. They wanted me to bankrupt a few smaller companies that were competing with them by the next day and transfer the money back to a bank account they specified, then erase any evidence.

The money I would be, well, stealing for them, probably wouldn't rival 12 million, but I had no doubt that a company as large as theirs could make up the loss in no time.

And I'd a couple million dollars richer.

Balancing my cigarette delicately between my lips, I opened up all my hacking components, finding the database of the smallest company on the list easily. I broke past the first few layers of security without a problem and continued on.

I'd be done by sunrise.

Applause burst forth from all sides of me as the last note in my newest piece wavered into nothing. I kept my eyes closed for a minute to try and salvage what fragile peace of mind I had left, but the noise was eating it away from me. A sudden crash to my left, louder than any of the clapping, smashed it to pieces. I turned a glare towards the noise, only to find a gangly redhead -with his mouth hanging open, nonetheless- staring straight at me.  
Or I thought he was, I couldn't much tell because his eyes were covered by _orange goggles_, of all things. But he was facing in my general direction, so I assumed as much. He reacted how anybody else under my stare usually did, holding it for a minute and then scrambling to get away.

As he briskly grabbed up his fallen bag and made for the exit, a can rolled down the aisle, coming to a stop not three feet from the stage.  
It was an energy drink.

I couldn't help a smirk- it was the same brand I used to buy.  
I remembered that I had an audience and bowed swiftly, my 'manager', Croze, had appeared at the edge of the stage like usual. I strode over to him, handing him my violin to place into the velvet lined case he carried in his left hand, and stuck my palm out expectantly.  
He placed a Cadbury chocolate bar in my hand.  
Cadbury.  
"What the fuck is this?"  
"Chocolate."  
"Yeah, I'm not fucking stupid, I can see that. I _mean_ where is my Richart?"  
"Ran out."  
"How do you r_un out_ of Richart!? There was a whole fucking shipment of it yesterday! You _know_ my terms!"  
"Not my fault."  
I would have busted a cap in his face a hundred times over if we weren't in public, and if it wouldn't have gotten me killed, and... if I had a gun handy.  
He turned around and shuffled towards the car, opening my door and expecting me to follow while he slid my violin to the furthest seat.

I complied, climbing into my seat only because I didn't really have a choice, and waited for him to shut the door again before I sank into the leather interior of the Cadillac and unfoiled the bar begrudgingly, taking a small bite of the chocolate.  
I almost choked- chocolate as cheap as this hadn't passed my lips since a was a child. There had better be some fucking Richart at the base.

I was on the last step of finishing the last hack, and then I could transfer the money to that company and receive my reward. I was so close I could practically feel the bills rubbing between my fingers as I typed. I would buy a house, new gaming systems, all the cigarettes I would ever need...

And... I was in! I just needed to transfer the money from their online banking system to the other company... and sneak back out of their database without being detected. I had an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach as I emptied their funds- but who wouldn't feel bad? I'd just singlehandedly trashed the futures of several companies. I began to trace back my footsteps, erasing evidence of a breach as I went.

When I was successfully out of their system, I closed the window and slouched back into my chair. And grinned. 12 million US dollars! All I had left to do was email the company back with a specified bank account- not my main one- to deposit my money in and I could go shopping. Online.  
Just as I cracked my knuckles, my main computer flashed to life, red text screaming warnings of a virus or hacker. I abandoned my slouch to lean over the keyboard, quickly clicking the option that would elaborate on what exactly was happening. I barely caught that it was a virus, not a hacker, before my computer blinked out.

I was always aware of the humming noise the computers made.  
And it was suddenly very, very quiet.

I tried the power button once

twice..

.  
three times..

.  
.

Nothing.


End file.
